Big Brother 17 - Fifth Eviction

Well, that was quite a week, wasn't it? Although I'm sure it will up the drama from here on out, I am a little bummed that the original plan for the week didn't come to fruition, and instead Jason was sent packing. Although I'm not a huge Jason fan or anything, he was entertaining and did seem to know a lot about what was going on in the house. As opposed to, say, Steve, who barely seems to exist. Not sure if it's different on the live feeds, but that's how they present it on the show anyway.

At the start of the week, Vanessa and Jackie were both crowned HOH. After Austin decided to run his mouth and confirm to Jason that the twin twist was real and he only cared about keeping in Liz versus Julia, things started to implode. He was doing it as a supposed game move to get closer to Jason in the future weeks, but instead Jason went and started telling everyone about it, which eventually got back to Vanessa and Shelli, who assumed he was telling Jason the truth.

So, the plan to backdoor Austin was born. Only no one told Liz about all of this, instead only telling Julia, who opted not to tell Liz lest she get mad at Austin and blow things up ahead of time, or, you know, sway them against doing it, which is what actually happened once she did find out. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Jackie put up Liz and James as her nominees, hoping for them to lose the BOB and eventually get Austin on the block. Vanessa put up Becky and Clay, hoping they would win and de-throne her as HOH.

Not so much. Even though they got James to agree to throw the BOB competition, Liz pulled it out herself in the end, leaving Clay and Becky on the block, and Vanessa still in power as HOH, which was really against her plans as she didn't want to be the one to backdoor Austin after being so close to him. Then came the Veto competition, which Clay ended up winning. It was at this point that Vanessa decided to tell Liz about the plan to backdoor Austin, and that plan went right out the window when Liz said she didn't think he was being genuine about getting rid of Julia. So, Austin was able to campaign for himself, and, sure enough, they decided to keep him and completely blindside Jason instead. This, all after Vanessa had made a secret second alliance with that side of the house.

Jason tried to rally votes, but in the end wasn't able to do it. So, it's goodbye to Jason, and hello to Julia, who now gets to enter the house alongside Liz since they survived five evictions. And straight into the next HOH competition, which is finally an endurance competition, so we don't know who wins. AND it's the end of the whole BOB thing as well, thank goodness. I'm not sure they should keep doing that in future seasons. Also - what happened to the whole takeover business? That lasted, what, two weeks? So much for that idea!

In the end, I'm not sure it really was in the best interest of sixth sense alliance to ultimately keep Austin. Although they say they can trust him and he's a vote on their side, he did secretly vote against everyone last week. I mean, hello, his alter ego is Judas. You know, the betrayer? Plus he is getting so in Liz's face all the time with the flirting when she doesn't like him like that. I know she feels she can manipulate him, and that is likely true, but that's only good for her and not everyone else. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic changes now that Julia is also in the house at the same time.

Okay, people, that's it for this week! Who do you hope wins HOH? I hope it's someone new who can stir things up a bit; one side of the house has been in power for way too long now.

Supernatural: Top 5 Season Ten Episodes

Even though I felt like a lot of season 10 of Supernatural was spinning its wheels until it could actually deal with the Mark of Cain business, looking back at the episode list, I have to admit, there were quite a few pretty good episodes. Now, I don't know if any of them would make my ultimate top 10 episodes ever list, but perhaps one of them could get a spot... maybe? Hmm that's hard. I'm sure one day, when the show has finally been salted and burned, I will try to rank all of the episodes from all of the seasons. That will be an epic task, to be sure. Because who knows how many episodes will exist by that point. We're already over 200! Oh gosh I don't even want to think about how hard that will be.

So let's get back to season ten. Definitely one of the better seasons in the post-Kripke era. I had kind of a hard time picking out which were really the best episodes and which ones I just enjoyed myself. So, hopefully most of you will agree with the below list. As always, though, let me know what you think in the comments, and don't forget to vote in the poll at the end!

As usual, the title next to the number is a link to a favorite scene from each episode.

5. Soul Survivor (10x03)

Originally, I didn't have this episode on my top 5 list. I get why a lot of people like it - Dean was returned to his demon-less self, and there was Cas getting another grace to use as a stopgap until he could get his own back. So I'm including it because a lot of people seemed to like this one a lot. If I had my own druthers, I would probably swap it for one of my honorable mentions below, likely Angel Heart.

4. About a Boy (10x12)

There have been many iterations of young Dean in the past. While young Sam got it right when they cast Colin Ford, young Dean had a bit of a harder time finding the right fit. But finally, they seem to have done it with Dylan Everett. About a Boy was only tangentially about the overall plot of the season, but that was perfectly fine. It brought some much needed humor to the party, and I admit I had a hard time picking which scene to feature in my link. Now, if only we can get an episode with BOTH Colin and Dylan as the teenChesters, that would be awesome.

3. Book of the Damned (10x18)

You can't have a top episodes list for season 10 without including at least one Felicia Day episode. I know, the season was her swan song as Charlie, which kind of made me mad because she was one of the only recurring female characters on the show, but at least they gave her some good material on the way out. The boys would not have been able to get anywhere near figuring out how to get rid of the Mark without her. I chose this episode because it got the arc of the season finally moving with the discovery of the Book of the Damned, and had Charlie and Castiel meet for the first time, which seems odd but is true. Cas also got his own grace back with the "help" of Metatron, so that story was finally wrapped up as well. All in all, a very strong episode.

2. Brother's Keeper (10x23)

The season finale featured some very intense moments for the brothers at the end of the hour. Things finally come to a head with the whole Mark of Cain business. At first it seems like maybe Dean will go along with Death's plan to send him off to points unknown (but he'd have to kill Sam first to ensure he wouldn't go looking for him). But, the Winchesters can never give up on each other, so instead they opt for killing Death and allowing Rowena to finish getting rid of the Mark, which, uh... has some nasty consequences. It was a satisfying conclusion to the Mark storyline, even if it took a whole season to finally get to it.

1. Fan Fiction (10x05)

Honestly, this episode gets the top spot for sheer nostalgia power. For any longtime fan of the show, it touched on so many in jokes and scenes from the past that you would have to be kind of crazy not to get a little warm fuzzy feeling in your heart when you watch it. Particularly when they sing Carry On at the end - I mean, how can you not love that? Sure, the monster of the week wasn't that interesting, but the episode wasn't really about that, rather more about the brothers and the importance of their journey together. Aw...

Honorable Mentions: Ask Jeeves (I liked the humor), Hibbing 911 (again, I like the two ladies and the humor of the episode), There's No Place Like Home (I enjoyed the dichotomy of Dark and Light Charlie), The Executioner's Song (mainly just for the scene between Dean and Cain), Angel Heart (I thought it was a well-crafted episode).

Worst Episode of the Season: Halt and Catch Fire... just... no.

What is your favorite season 10 episode of Supernatural?

Fan Fiction

Brother's Keeper

Book of the Damned

About a Boy

Soul Survivor

Other

 

pollcode.com free polls

For more of my countdowns, check out my top 10 lists page.

Big Brother 17 - Fourth Eviction

Well, that escalated quickly. Or perhaps not so quickly, considering the house has been wanting a certain houseguest evicted for a few weeks now. Yes, Audrey's time in the Big Brother house has come to an end. And to be quite frank, it is probably the best for her mental health that it has. She spent hours and hours in the diary room leading up to the Veto ceremony, ate regular food while a have not, and just generally seemed to close herself off to everyone.

Honestly, she played the game way too hard way too fast. The first week I was thinking wow she may have a chance, and then it just went all downhill from there, when lie upon lie piled up on each other until it was too much to handle. When everything you say becomes a lie, no one can trust you, and when no one can trust you, you can't get very far.

Anyway, let's back up a second and talk about how we got here, because at the start of the week, Audrey was not on the HOH radar very much. Liz and Shelli were in power, and ended up picking James and Jackie and John and Jason as their nominees, respectively. It was not very clear who Liz wanted to target at all, but Shelli had Jason in her sights, namely because she heard from Audrey that he was targeting her. Luckily for him, she went to him after and asked him if it was true, and found out that yet again Audrey had lied.

In the BOB, despite having a strong lead, Jason and John lost, taking James and Jackie off the block and keeping them safe for the week. This is when Audrey really started to tailspin, when she became ultra paranoid that Shelli would put her up as a replacement nominee. To be honest, Shelli wasn't really wanting to do that, but once Audrey started causing drama with Clay, things were not poised in her favor anymore.

The POV competition ended up with Vanessa taking home the prize. She decided to take Jason off the block, and Shelli had to do the right thing and replace him with Audrey. But - Audrey wasn't even there to participate in the veto ceremony! She straight up just stayed in the Have Not room, covered in a blanket. Ohhhhkay. First time in BB history someone has not shown up to the Veto ceremony.

Last night I was a little worried that something crazy might happen and that the house would evict Johnny Mac in some combination of feeling sorry for Audrey and starting to realize that he may be a contender since everyone likes him. Honestly, he is hilarious, and I was going to be super sad to see him go. But, in the end, the house did the right thing and voted to evict Audrey nearly unanimously, with Austin secretly voting to keep her. Who knows what in the world Austin is even thinking in this game anymore. He is just all over the place.

Which left the HOH competition to round out the night. I have to say, I wish a couple different people had won. First you've got Jackie, who's really been a complete floater. Then you've got Vanessa, who certainly seems to know what she's doing, but she's already been the HOH and I feel like she will just dominated Jackie in terms of who should go, which means another week of the same type of stuff. Will John be forced to go on the block yet AGAIN? Sheesh.

That's all for this week! Who are you routing for? Let me know in the comments!

Big Brother 17 - Third Eviction

Last I wrote, Austin and Vanessa had both been crowned the new HOHs for the week. I feel like with this whole Battle of the Block business, every episode is always some big event rather than just focusing on the drama of the house. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, as I've only seen one season each with and without it.

Anyway, Austin and Vanessa have been in an alliance since the beginning, so working together as the HOHs was pretty much an easy decision. And they seemed to be on pretty much the same page - instead of targeting Audrey like the house wanted, they were going to go after either James or Jeff. To be honest, this was mostly Vanessa's plan over Austin's. They decided to put up James and John for Vanessa and Jason and Meg for Austin. And again John was asked to throw his BoB competition in order to keep James up on the block.

As has become something of a tradition for John, James pretty much threw the competition for himself, by just sucking completely at it. Jason and Meg kicked their butts and got themselves off the block. Which then led to the Veto competition on the next episode, which John won again to ensure he was safe. Honestly, even though everyone always tells him he's safe every time they come to him to be a pawn, it's best for him to win those things because he is definitely super likable and could get pretty far because of it.

So! That meant Vanessa, as the reigning HOH, had to nominate another person. She wasn't sure what to do at first because she didn't want to piss off the house and do the whole "blood on the hands" thing they love to say over and over, but then Jeff kind of kept putting his foot in his mouth and made her decision pretty easy. So, her two initial targets were up on the block. Alas, Jeff couldn't dig himself back out from his hole, and ended up going home in a vote of 7-4.

Okay, that's a whole lot of crap that happened in the last week. What exactly led Jeff to being evicted? He kept talking about the whole Liz being a twin thing, and to Austin, no less, which was a bad idea considering Austin is close to Liz and clearly would never tell him if he knew or not. Then Jeff basically said that Clay was getting distracted by Shelli and he didn't trust her, which came to a head, and was one of the main reasons Jeff went up on the block. Not to mention that Austin has a big ole crush on Liz and couldn't handle it when she would flirt with Jeff, even though she was doing it for her game, and it's kind of clear she's not super in to Austin, romantically.

After all of that, it was time for another HOH competition at the end of the episode, which was some goofy thing where a group came out and did some '90s inspired dance, and then everyone had to answer true/false questions about it. In the end, Liz and Shelli became the two new HOHs, which is probably very good news for Liz/Julia, as they only have to survive a couple more evictions until they can both be in the house at the same time.

That's about it for this week. As far as personal favorites in the house go, I guess Johnny Mac is consistently hilarious so I have to choose him. His voice is always so unpredictable. I'm not sure what to think about Austin. Sometimes he comes off a little wacky. Some others have been basically floating so far, particularly Jackie, Steve and Becky. Of course, it could just be how the show is edited.

Anywho, that's all for now! Until next week!

Banana Ice Cream

I may be having a slow baking season this summer. One, summer is hot and turning on the oven no matter the time of day heats up the entire apartment. Not the greatest. And two, the bf and I have been on something of a health kick. We even joined a gym! I can tell you I haven't worked out some of these muscles in years, and the burn the day after some of these workouts is pretty harsh. 

But what it also means is that we've been trying to eat healthier. So, less cookies. Less bars. Less everything sugary and fatty and delicious, basically. Which brings me to this "ice cream." Because it's not really ice cream. There is no cream present at all. In fact, this is perhaps the easiest dessert you can make - ever.

 

Now, if you don't like bananas, this probably isn't for you. But if you want a light dessert that tastes like banana ice cream, then heck, get on it. I was actually quite amazed at how ice cream-like this is. All you do is cut up a banana, freeze it, then put the frozen pieces in a food processor and wham-o! Grind that up and up until it comes together into what basically resembles ice cream. I mean, can you tell from the pictures that there isn't any actual cream in it?!

It's sweet and creamy all on its own, and if you buy a bunch of bananas and can't eat them all before they go bad, then here is a great summer solution. Next time, I'm going to add in some peanut butter for some peanut butter banana ice creamy goodness. I think there are quite a few different possibilities here - add in chocolate chips, or peanut butter chips, for example. Basically whatever you can think of that sounds good with banana ice cream!

Banana “Ice Cream”
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 1 cup
Prep time: 02:05 

Cook time: 00:00 

Total time: 02:05

The easiest “ice cream” you’ll ever make.

Ingredients:

• 1 or more bananas

Instructions:

1. Cut up and freeze banana(s).
2. Once frozen, place slices in a food processor and process until smooth like ice cream.

Big Brother 17 - Second Eviction

Another week, another eviction. It's funny, you wouldn't think there would always be so much drama in the Big Brother house, but it always seems to get stirred up somehow. This week was all about Shelli and Clay's "secret" plan to get rid of Da'Vonne. While Becky wanted to backdoor Audrey after all of her lying was exposed, Shelli (or was it mostly Clay, hmm?) were set on getting Mama Da out, because she would be, supposedly, gunning for them.

Well, as you can see, their plan ended up working. It was goodbye to Da'Vonne tonight after a last Hail Mary on her part to try to save herself from eviction that just didn't quite work. With her luck in getting the BB Takeover last laugh, she had something of a chance to make it happen. She was able to choose three people to not be able to vote in the eviction. She went to campaigning to get five votes to keep her in the competition, and although she seemed to be making some headway, it just wasn't enough. In the end, she kept Becky, Jeff and Jackie from voting, and was still voted out 7-2, with the only two voting to keep her in Jason and Audrey, ever the unpredictable one.

Da brought up an interesting point in her exit interview with Julie - she said that everyone is afraid to nominate Audrey for eviction because of the whole transgender business of it all. No one wants to be the one who does it. No one really seems to be saying that on the show, but it could still be true subconsciously. Seriously, though, I don't see how anyone can actually work with her moving forward, though. She is completely untrustworthy and clearly a liar. She doesn't seem like she can last much longer in the game, but who the heck knows.

Anyhow, that led to the next HOH competition, introduced by head of this week's BB Takeover, Rob Gronkowski. What his takeover actually means is yet to be seen apart from no one being a Have Not, and the HOH competition being something of an exaggerated beer pong situation. In the end, Austin and Vanessa ended up being crowned the next HOHs, and I have to say that should be pretty interesting. They seem to both be working together, and we haven't seen too much of either of them quite yet, so who will they be hoping to get rid of?

On another note, Da'Vonne also totally figured out that Liz is a twin! As Julie pointed out, she should have kept it to herself and used it as leverage with Liz/Julia to get her vote, but instead she blabbed it to the whole house, then went and told Julia about it as well, which didn't really work in her favor. But what does this mean for Liz/Julia moving forward? Are they only out of the game if they're voted out, or does the fact that everyone knows already negate it? I'm a bit confused on the rules of that twist.

Do you have any favorites so far? I have to say Johnny Mac's diary sessions always make me laugh just because his voice is so hilarious. I may kind of be rooting for him to take it all right now. But who knows, it's still early in the game!

Big Brother 17 - First Eviction

As some, or perhaps many, of you may know, in summers past the show I have recapped has been So You Think You Can Dance. But, with the big changes they introduced this season, I just didn't think I could stomach it anymore. In fact, I haven't even been watching it, which is saying something as I've watched every season since the very beginning. Big Brother may seem like an odd choice to pick as a follow up summer show to discuss, but if you've ever watched it, you must know - it's frickin' addicting.

I watched the last two seasons after my boyfriend insisted on watching it, and to my own chagrin, became hooked. So, because it's something we can watch and discuss together, I thought it might be fun to focus on it this summer. Perhaps it will be a one time thing, perhaps not, who knows! Anyway, I'm just going to be posting after each eviction episode lest I get too overwhelmed with a show on three days a week.

So! It's been a week now since this new season started up, with a whole new cast to get to know. There are a few different twists this year - including the return of the Battle of the Block, plus something called the BB Takeover, which is basically just a new twist to the game every week, as well as the Twin Twist, which my boyfriend tells me has happened in another season. But, basically, one contestant is actually an identical twin and switches back and forth with their counterpart. If they make it through a certain amount of evictions without being found out or evicted, they both get to enter the game, I believe.

Anyhow! This week was all about starting and stopping alliances, apparently. Mostly because of Audrey, let's be honest. She was in no less than three supposed alliances throughout the course of the week, and continued to annoy those in her biggest alliance by drawing more and more people into it. That may come back to bite her soon enough. Also likely in the cross-hairs soon? Da'Vonne, who had kind of a meltdown over something completely stupid, in my opinion.

But no one had a bigger target on their back than Jace. The main group, including HOH James and dethroned HOH Jason, hatched a plan with, you guessed it, Audrey, to backdoor Jace as the first evicted houseguest. And in really went off without a hitch. The first two groups of contestants nominated for eviction were John and Becky, and Steven and Jackie. While John and Becky won their Battle of the Block, Steven managed to win the Veto competition, which gave James the opportunity to put up Jace, who was rather blindsided as he thought he was in an alliance with James. Not so much, bro.

Nearly everyone voted for Jace to be evicted, except for Audrey, who is likely just stirring up that dramarama. So it's goodbye to Jace, who couldn't get enough of the camera or his "fans" in the audience upon his exit. I have to say, I'm relieved it wasn't Steven who went home, because he's such an awkward dude, I kind of root for him.

Oh, and it was revealed who the twins are tonight as well. The BF and I were talking about it right before it was revealed, with our guesses. He thought it might be Meg, but I said I had a feeling it was Liz. Who was right? Ahem. Yeah, baby! I got it right! Liz and her sister Julia are posing as the same person. If you know they're twins, you can probably tell, but without knowing, it would be difficult.

Anyway, the two HOH's for this next week are Becky and Shelli, and the BB Takeover is courtesy of Kathy Griffin. She will call the house seven times throughout the week, and whoever picks up on the seventh call will have the power of the Last Laugh, where they choose three people who won't be able to vote in the next eviction. Pretty powerful!

Okay, phew. That's a lot to recap in one post! Who are you rooting for? Anyone you think has the chops to make it to the end? It's kind of hard to tell right now. I was thinking Audrey was doing pretty well at manipulating people, but then she went a little overboard, so I'm not so sure anymore.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

I know it's nothing compared to planning the wedding itself, but man, being in a wedding is hard work! This past weekend was my best friend's wedding, so it was up to Portland for me, during one of the hottest weeks of the year up there, holy cow. But what ended up being kind of a nice bonus was, since I ended up going up for the whole week, I ended up getting to spend Father's Day up there as well, which I haven't done in years. In trying to come up with something to make my dad since I never really get to bake for him not living up there, something with macadamia nuts immediately came to mind. And what's better than White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies? They did get a little bit smushed in my luggage on the flight up there, but for the most part they made it.

These cookies are super easy to make. The only hard thing about them is possibly finding macadamia nuts that aren't crazily priced. Yeah, those things are definitely not cheap. But they are delicious, so I guess that kind of makes up for it. The ones I used were roasted and salted, and though you don't necessarily need roasted nuts, I would recommend you try to get them salted. It adds a nice little extra flavor to them. Trust. It may seem contradictory that sweets need salt, but they really do!

I'm kind of surprised I haven't made these before for this blog, but I suppose it likely had to do with the cost of the nuts. What can I say, there are budgets to consider! Nonetheless, if you like these types of cookies, definitely give these a go. You won't be disappointed! They come out nice and soft and yummy.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped salted macadamia nuts

Cooking Directions

1. Beat together your butter and sugars until light and fluffy, usually about 3 minutes. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat for another minute until fully incorporated.
2. Add in the baking soda, salt and flour and slowly mix together until just combined. Stir in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts until they are evenly distributed. I usually do this by hand.
3. Cover and stick that in the fridge for an hour. You can skip this step if you want, but cookies are better if you cool the dough first.
4. Preheat your oven to 350F. Line your baking sheet with either parchment or a silicon baking mat. Place dollops of dough about two inches apart on the sheet. I use a cookie scoop for mine, but you can also use regular spoons.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are slightly browned. They won't look super done in the center, but that's fine, because you let them rest on the cookie sheet for another 10 minutes, which will finish their cooking. After that, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe adapted from The Novice Chef